Now this is more like it: As opposed to Asus’s “Smart 10” tablet, which looked and performed like a 7” device in a 10” format, the standard Asus MeMo Pad acts like an impressive smaller tablet on its proper playing field – at a bargain price.

The specs are slightly above-average stuff when measured against the 7” tablet world: The processor is a 1 GHz ARM Cortex A9 with 1 GB of RAM, certainly enough to get the user’s favorite and most common tasks done. Resolution is set at 1024 x 600, pretty typical stuff for a 7” tablet that looks good. (If this is too much of a minus for the user, we can suggest the Asus MeMo Pad HD for a higher-quality viewing experience.)

With this in mind, it’s slightly strange that the Asus folks outfitted the MeMo Pad with a high-definition video camera. For best results, one might theoretically record with the MeMo Pad and view/edit on a second device – but is anyone going to look the gift horse of an HD video camera in the mouth?

At just under 0.8 pounds, the MeMo Pad is a hair over the average weight but shouldn’t be much of a distraction in carrying. Go ahead and chalk it up to an impressive amount of internal storage: 16 GB at such a low-end price is definitely notable and worth an extra ounce or two.

Finally, a couple of other features add tantalizing quality: The stereo speakers bring excellent audio to the user and a micro SD card is always useful. In short, the Asus MeMo Pad is a lot of bang for little money.